Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog
A woman died yesterday when she was struck by an Amtrak train around 5 p.m. According to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari, a Seattle and Portland bound train hit the woman as she was using the pedestrian crossing at the Lake Forest, IL, station. The train accident claimed the life of 43 year-old Teresa Spradlin of Grayslake, IL. The Lake County Coroner officially pronounced Spradlin dead around 6 p.m. yesterday.
Two unidentified Grayslake men were also injured in the train accident. Those men were taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with reportedly minor injuries. Amtrak officials and the Lake Forest Police report that the train was stopped for about four hours while the accident was being investigated. It has been speculated that the victim was attempting to cross in front of the non-stop Amtrak train when the accident occurred. The train accident is still under investigation.
According to Illinois Operation Lifesaver, a non-profit public education program established to end collisions and deaths at railroad crossings, Illinois ranks fourth among the top 15 states for rail crossing collisions. The non-profit reports that Illinois suffered 151 highway-rail grade crossing collisions in 2007. About half of these collisions occurred while warning signals were flashing or train gates were down.